Customer
A major HVAC system manufacturer of large chiller systems for commercial, building, clean room, and data center cooling.
Application
Production refrigeration processing of very large packaged cooling systems, performed by connecting to service ports located at various locations within the system plumbing.
Challenge
The most commonly used service port on large commercial chillers are packed angle valves. Unlike smaller systems that travel down an assembly line, these units are stationary but require the same processing steps… leak test, evacuation, refrigerant charge, and a run test. Due to their immense size the time to both evacuate and charge large chiller systems was extreme, especially the evacuation time which could often take 10 hours or more. Reducing evacuation time represented a significant opportunity to increase operational efficiency. The customer was also experiencing leakage with the existing packed angle valves which was exacerbating the problem.
Project Goals
• Reduce evacuation and charging time
• Eliminate the leaking packed angle valves
Solution
FasTest engineers worked with the customer to implement FasTest’s PortMax high flow refrigeration access valve and connector tool system.
Results
On systems outfitted with the PortMax system, the customer realized a 30% reduction in evacuation time vs. the systems with packed angle valves. An additional 20% reduction was achieved when the evacuation was performed using FasTest’s EvacMax automated evacuation cart.
